Track is my field: Mark Cullen's international track and field blog featuring storytelling, commentary, and predictions and event analyses for the Olympics and World Championships. I'm writing from the 2017 World Championships in London. I'm active on twitter: @trackerati

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Late Round Heroics in Women's Hammer

Late round heroics were the order of the day in the USATF women’s
hammer throw final on Saturday in Eugene.

In an event of many meters, mere inches made all the
difference.

Amber Campbell pulled out a 6th round 237’ 5” to
top NCAA champ DeAnna Price by 3 inches, win the national title, and stamp her
ticket to Beijing – the 5th World Championships of her remarkable
career, in addition to two Olympics.

NCAA champion Price also has met the World Championship
standard, so she’ll be joining Campbell in Beijing in August.

Only two inches separated Amanda Bingson from Jeneva Stevens
in the battle for the final spot on the World Championship team.

All is not lost for Stevens, however, as she made the Worlds
team in the shot put on Thursday.

It’s been a remarkable June for Price at Hayward Field. Here
she won the NCAA title on June 11 and made her first Worlds team 16 days later.

“This is my place!” said the exuberant Price.

“I did what I had to do today and I’m happy with it,” she
continued. “There’s a lot more in the tank and I’m just going to have to keep
practicing, keep practicing – keep driving and keep going for what I need to
do.”

The key to Price’s goals for Beijing is the consistency of
her preparation: “Just train hard and do my job… that’s all I can ask for.”

“I’m a young athlete and I know I don’t have the experience,
but I do have the drive and I know that I can do something.”

Amanda Bingson looks to Beijing as a chance to refine her
focus. “I need to settle back down and work on myself to get back to mentally
being right,” she said, “so that’s going to be a big part of our training.”

“The goal is always to win. We’re looking for big girl
finals, being close to our PR, hopefully for a medal, and definitely going out
and trying to win.”

A contrarian on Eugene’s sweltering weather conditions,
Coastal Carolina graduate Campbell said, “This is pleasant! This is a nice 8:00
in the morning training session. We’ve had 95F with 90% humidity for the last
two weeks, so I’m good – this is fine.”

Bingson agreed. As someone who has lived in Las Vegas and
Austin, she said, “Oh, this weather is awesome - I love this weather! I was
about to put on my sweatshirt, to be honest!”

Sweatshirt?!

Stevens views the weather as good preparation for what is to
come. “Today was a down day being in the tent, in the call rooms, in the heat.
You know what? It’s going to be hot in China so you have to go through this to
get used to that.”

Next Amber Campbell will go to the Pan-American Games in Toronto
and try to turn her ’11 bronze into silver or gold.

But Beijing is her ultimate goal.

“I want to do much better than I did today, make the final,
and vie for a medal.”

It’s a dynamic team that the US is sending to Worlds:

Campbell, the accomplished veteran with a stellar resume of seven
world and Olympic teams;

Bingson, at six years in the sport a relative newcomer,
whose rapid progression includes the American record; and

Scorcher

Translate

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@Trackerati

I'm active on Twitter every evening at Worlds. I'm live-tweeting the throws for the Throwholics website, but will chime in with other updates. I'll also post a daily piece here, whether a summary of events or a reflection on a single aspect of these championships.